DRINKING WATER
Beyond Meter Reads: Leveraging Temetra For Enhanced Customer Engagement And Conservation
Las Vegas Valley Water District is modernizing conservation efforts with Temetra, using high-resolution meter data to detect leaks sooner, engage customers, and secure water resources amid extreme drought conditions.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
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Water Surge Prevention: Analysis Of Solutions And Alternatives
Water Surge could cause damage in a water conveyance system, from leaking pipes to serious breakdowns and accidents the consequences of which could lead to heavy financial costs and even loss of life. There are various solutions that are able to prevent or reduce the damage. It is important to know the differences between the solutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, before recommending the most suitable solution for the system.
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Testing Better Paths To Contaminant Control
As a utility, it is tough enough to be notified that you need to remove a new contaminant of emerging concern (CEC). It’s even harder without having a complete picture of what is involved.
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Niederzeuzheim WWTP Case Study The villages of Oberzeuzheim and Niederzeuzheim, Germany are served by the Niederzeuzheim wastewater treatment plant. The plant was originally designed as a nitrification facility for a population of approximately 3,000.
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Moving Toward Sustainability: Perfecting Wastewater Pretreatment For Direct Potable Reuse
This article will explain why pre-treatment is so important to direct potable reuse and the most important aspects of pre-treatment design.
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ABB Flowmeters Help Cut Water Loss In Bangkok
ABB’s AquaMaster flowmeters have been integral to the overall water management solution. Over 400 AquaMaster flowmeters actively serve the Bangkok Metropolitan area helping optimize the management of the water distribution network.
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Innovative Repair Products A Key To Optimized Asset Management
For water managers, getting visibility into their distribution system through historical data offers a better understanding of which pipes are most likely to break, thereby making it easier to plan to make repairs before they become emergencies. Active leak detection can also reduce the number of emergency repairs by finding them when they are small leaks. A growing number of municipalities are taking advantage of those tools. At the same time, however, selecting optimal repair products plays just as critical a role in enhancing asset management.
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How To Clean, Inspect, And Calibrate pH Sensors
Once a pH sensor is installed in the process and operating, how do you determine when it is time to take the sensor out of the process and do a cleaning, or a calibration? Does one perform both a cleaning and a calibration or just a cleaning, or just a calibration?
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BEACON SaaS Increases Efficiency And Reduces Water And Energy Consumption
Located in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California, an area hit hard by recent droughts, the City of Merced’s Water System Division appreciates the value of water and successful water management. Strict water mandates, put into effect across California after the historic droughts of 2014 and 2015, along with continuing population growth, made the city’s need for flexible and efficient water management solutions more critical than ever.
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Indirect Potable Reuse With UV-Oxidation - Big Spring, Texas
In an effort to reduce reliance on dwindling surface and groundwater supplies in Texas, the Colorado River Municipal Water District constructed a new Raw Water Production Facility in Big Spring.
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How To Evaluate Predictive Models For Lead Service Line Inventory And Replacement
This guide will cover what predictive modeling is and give you seven questions to ask to help you choose wisely.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
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Fountain Testing Solutions10/29/2021
Accurate fountain (dampening) solution concentration control is essential for consistent, high-quality results in lithography. Low concentration can cause drying on the non-image area of the plate resulting in tinting, scumming, blanket piling, etc. High concentrations, on the other hand, bring about over-emulsification of the ink. This results in weakening of color strength and changes in ink rheology (body and flow properties). Correct concentration will allow the non-image areas of the plate to be appropriately wetted.
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Bottled Water Industry: Liquid Analytical Solutions11/10/2013
Americans consume more than 9.1 billion gallons of bottled water annually - an average of twenty nine gallons per person every year.
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Determination Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Seafood4/20/2015
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of organic compounds found naturally in the environment. PAHs are monitored by the US Environmental Protection Agency due to their carcinogenic characteristics.
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Analysis Of Pesticide Residue In Spinach Using The AutoMate-Q40 An Automated QuEChERS Solution10/16/2014
QuEChERS is a Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe extraction method that has been developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.
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Application Note: Desalination Plants: YSI Instruments Monitor Flow & Water Quality At Multiple Stages2/3/2011Desalination is the process of removing salt from sea water or brackish river or groundwater to make potable water. By YSI
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What Is Genclean Advanced Oxidation Disinfection Solution And What Is It Used For?2/18/2021
A non-toxic, advanced oxidation (AOP) formula of minerals chelated with oxygen and stabilized in an aqueous water solution. It is a viable option in industries and applications requiring a solution to challenging situations where high level effective sanitization and oxidation is required. Read more to learn how the Genclean advanced oxidation treatment solutions can be used in different applications.
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The Active Control Program For Advanced UV Oxidation12/1/2025
This application note will explore how active control programs lower operational costs of compliant contaminant removal.
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Application Note: Using Real-Time Telemetry For Ecological Monitoring Of Coastal Wetlands2/3/2011The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)in Mississippi is one of 27 protected estuarine reserves across the United States. By YSI
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Hydrogen Sulfide Removal From Water Using AquaSorb® CX-MCA2/19/2014
The “rotten egg” odor in some water supplies is caused by sulfide in water. Sulfide can be treated using oxidation techniques, the goal being to convert the sulfide to high oxidation state species such as sulfate to eliminate the taste and odor concerns. Traditional oxidation techniques such as ozone and chlorine can be used, but can be expensive due to the equipment required to add and monitor the oxidant, and can lead to by-products such as trihalomethanes (THMs), which are regulated in drinking water supplies.
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Remote Monitoring And Maintenance Through Digitalization3/17/2020
Siemens offers to our customers the ability to make both process measurements, and to remotely monitor the activity and health of instrumentation, whether you have a SCADA, PLC or DCS system, or not. By utilizing Siemens’ ability to offer unparalleled flow, level, pressure, temperature, and weight measurement we can provide a broad range of process measurements and offer unequaled monitoring of the health and performance of those products.
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
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Learn how the Mustang Bayou Service Area (MBSA) Water System Improvements project delivered a fast-tracked, multi-phase response to rapid development and critical capacity challenges in one of the Missouri City’s fastest-growing regions.
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As water systems grow more complex and climate patterns shift, Legionella is emerging as one of the most persistent and underestimated risks in the built environment. The threat to public health from Legionnaires' disease will likely further escalate unless decisive action is taken.
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The city of Jackson faced a water crisis that went beyond the tap. What began as an ambitious plan to modernize its water metering infrastructure in 2014 became a logistical and financial nightmare, costing the city millions in lost revenue and declining public trust. Metering as a Service (MaaS) offered the city an alternative option.
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There has been an abundance of funding available to address the estimated 9.2 million lead service lines currently deliver drinking water to homes, businesses, schools, and unsuspecting citizens throughout the United States. So it is disheartening to realize that millions of lead water lines are still delivering water to citizens.
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This Q&A follows the Webinar: Beaverton's New AMI Solution Checks Every Box: Operations, Billing, Service, & Savings hosted by Water Online on October 21, 2025. The webinar featured the leadership team from Beaverton Water Division as they discussed lessons learned across operations, billing, and customer service, offering a 360-degree perspective on implementing and managing an AMI system.
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Amid the AI-fueled gold rush, more leaders are beginning to pay attention to the short- and long-term natural resource concerns, especially around all the water needed to keep data centers running.
ABOUT DRINKING WATER
In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:
- Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
- Drinking water treatment of source water
- Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers
Drinking Water Sources
Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater.
Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.
Drinking Water Treatment
Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.
There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.
The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.
The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.
During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.
Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.
Drinking Water Distribution
Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.
A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.
Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.